Crompton Ale House — Restaurant in New York

A humiliating experience My wife and I visited Crompton Ale House for a Thanksgiving meal and drinks. We arrived around 7 PM and were presented with a set menu with a choice of around four starters and four main courses and a choice of two desserts. We picked our choices and ordered drinks. Only one dessert was available, the other one was sold out.

After a starter we received our main course meals - turkey, and rib steak. After a couple of minutes we both felt that our meats were not sufficiently warm and reported this to our waiter. The food was taken away and returned reportedly warmed up (without the dip sauces that originally accompanied both plates). After a few new bites we both felt that the meat was still no warmer than the first time and we said this to our waiter. He apologized, but there was no effort to rectify the situation. At this point we had lost our enjoyment with the meal and said we would like to finish it there and pay for the drinks and starter.

He apologized again and got the manager to our table. When we explained that the meals had been presented to us a second time - still not as warm as meat should be - we were met with suspicion. Instead we were asked if we would like a drink.

Based on the poor response and what felt like no prospect of getting a warm meal we again asked to end the meal and pay for the starter and drinks we had.

After some minutes we were presented with a full bill for the whole set menu for both of us. As we felt this was unreasonable and not what we had asked for we said we could not accept this. The manager was again called over and said that we had ordered the set menu and had to pay for it in full. We explained that we had no other choice and that the food had not been warm and that they had not been able to correct this.

The manager had to us a very intimidating way of responding and said he had checked the temperature of the meat and said it was as it should be. We didn't feel that it was as warm as it should have been. In the end we said we had simply come there to enjoy a nice meal and that they had failed to deliver this. He then took the bill away.

A new bill was presented with one set menu taken off. As this was such a unpleasant experience for us we let it be with this and paid.

The table next to us reported that they also had received meat that was not properly warm. They had received a "sorry about that" when it was pointed out.

We have eaten numerous places around the globe and have never had such an unpleasant experience. We would not like anyone else to go through the same...

2018 The atmosphere inside is still really great. It's a very warm, nice space, and the TV situation is great for sports. However, all of the food has increased in price and not in quality. I went twice recently, and the quesadilla ($13) was half the size of a normal one (quarter the size of a full tortilla) and not that good, the chicken sandwich was very weak, the spinach artichoke dip was less flavorful than others I have had and it got weird and gummy right away. The chips for dipping in the spinach artichoke dip are thin and not that good. The waffle fries were underdone, white. The only thing I ate that was delicious were the sliders, but they were very tiny, think half the size of a normal slider, and overpriced. On top of that, I recently I also had two incidents of false advertising. The first was a lunch special advertised on a chalkboard outside- it said appetizer or salad with entree. That was the only reason I went in for lunch. When we were seated and asked about it, the waiter told us that was an old special (even though it is a chalkboard, kind of the most temporary advertising medium). He then told us specials, as in extra full-priced menu items, and said that was the new "lunch special". In addition to that, when we got our bill, one of the beers was a dollar more. When we asked about that, he said the menu wasn't updated either and that it was also a mistake.

All in all not worth it. Either lower the prices a lot, or make good food. I would pay for expensive apps in an awesome space if they were good, but almost NOTHING is good. I don't think it's that hard to make basic bar apps. I mean the Trader Joe's frozen spinach artichoke dip is twice as good as this one and it is 1/12th the price. Disappointing because I really do like the atmosphere.

2015 Review: The atmosphere is cool and the staff is friendly. The food left something to be desired for me. The prices seemed to high for what I got. In particular the potato skin nachos appetizer, which was pretty weak. It was mostly just plain potato. The chicken taquitos were okay but I don't think worth $12. And the pigs in a blanket appetizer was really good (although small), but again not for that price.

Bar wise I like this place, I had been one time previously just to the bar. I will probably be back again just not for dinner. They do have a lot of TVs so it would be a good place to...

The Good: My wife and I were in town for our honeymoon June 8th – 15th and stopped in here on our way back to our hotel from a walk around the neighborhood on June 9th. We had a nice lunch and the food and service were quite good. When the waitress found out we were on our honeymoon she gave us a 20% coupon and told us to stop in again during our stay. That was so appreciated!!

The Bad: This was like the tale of two restaurants. We had been here earlier in the day on the 9th for lunch and the waitress had given us a 20% coupon when she found out we were in town for our honeymoon (we had just arrived the day before). Our intention was to have dinner, dessert and drinks since we were just sticking to the neighborhood that day and our hotel was only a couple blocks away.

I had the French dip, which was quite good and we were enjoying ourselves. Shortly after our food arrived our waiter did a quick flyby asking if everything was OK. Then he never came back. The restaurant was basically empty, only a few people at the bar. He walked past several times, but never stopped at the table. After we finished eating I tried a couple times to get his attention as he walked by, but he was literally looking the other direction. Then he was standing near the host/hostess stand (we were toward the back of the restaurant) and I thought he was looking in our general direction so I stood up and actually started waving at him. Nothing. Finally I called out to a gentleman who appeared to be an owner or manager and he came to the table. I asked for the check which he brought. We decided no dessert, no drinks. Left a very minimal tip and left. Went to a nearby restaurant/bar and spent $56 plus tip on Scotch, chocolate cake and ice cream. Amazing how little it takes to destroy an experience. Now multiply...